There are over a million vehicles stolen in the U.S. every year at great loss to owners and insurers. Most effort heretofore focused on preventing the theft have mixed results. The recovery, if any, of stolen vehicles is usually accidental. This invention combines existing technologies to create a unique owner oriented system to locate a lost vehicle. The system may increase the odds for recovering the vehicle intact and possibly for apprehending the thief.
The Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites have been used extensively as a navigational aid. Standalone GPS receiver units have existed for some time and have had standard interfaces to navigation computers. Commercial systems of GPS units have been used to track delivery vehicles and taxi cabs via specialized telecommunications systems and base stations not readily available to the public.
This invention provides for the location of a subject's vehicle or property to be obtained through use of GPS receiver units in a computer "bulletin board type" framework, using readily available software that millions of people already use to connect to computer bulletin boards and download information. Standard hardware is utilized, comprising e.g. a PC connected to a modem and a cellular phone and a GPS receiver unit communicating with another PC/modem/phone. The invention uses the same radio telephone or cellular telephone technology which is already available to the public in most of the areas in which it would be needed.